Sunday, May 27, 2012

Summer Challenge Week 2 results

The results are in for week 2. So how did you all get on with the fruit and veg challenge? I started the week well, then slowly my count decreased :(

I was thinking how I tend to eat the same thing all the time without much variety, so I was thinking the challenge for this week is. I want you to go out and try at least one new food - you never know it might be something you really love and it becomes a regular part of your food choices. I have signed up for a local fruit and veg delivery company, and I'll be honest a lot of the items on the list I had never heard of - so I'm excited to try new things when my delivery arrives on Tuesday.

Down to the numbers for this week, another great week. The group lost a total of 21.5lbs this week which was 0.56%. That's a total of 57.15lbs in two weeks. The person who lost the most this week was Lisa S (@LisascottLisa) who lost 2.55%, well done Lisa :) The overall loss also goes to Lisa who has lost a total of 5.36% in the two weeks. Can she keep it up for two more weeks to take the 4 week prize? There are a few people close behind her.

Well done to everyone this week and good luck for the week ahead. You can do it.

I'll be on vacation from Friday to Monday next week, and not sure if I will be taking my laptop, so I may not post results until Monday next week. Please still send me your weigh in results by midnight on the Saturday. I will always reply when I get them but if I don't have my laptop to hand I won't be able to send you your stats until I return.

Remember to use our #losew8in8 tag when posting on twitter.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

May BarkBox

I was so busy with moving house and various things this month that I completely forgot about BarkBox, so it was a nice surprise when I came home one day and found it on the doorstep. As soon as I walked in the door with it in my hand, both dogs went crazy sniffing the box.
 





















The theme for this month's BarkBox was playing and pampering, and some awesome items for doing both.

 As usual the edible treats are always the first ones to be taken from the box. I managed to cut the bully stick in half so they were both able to have it at the same time, so I didn't have to sit and supervise the sharing of it. The spiral bully stick from bestbullysticks is odor free and sourced from free range grass fed cattle.
The sqwuggie (yes a very strange name!) from Katie's Bumpers is a toy made from fire hose material, and can even be machine washed, although it does have a warning on it about the dye, so I probably wont be washing it!

The Dallas peanut butter Delights from Sloppy Kisses of Saratoga (such a cute name) were a big hit with my two.


Going on long walks in the warmer weather means I am always taking along bottles of water, and have various types of containers/bottles for this purpose. So it was nice to get a new one (Gulpy) from newangle direct.

Last but not least was a cute pampering set from Warren London it including a hydrating butter for your dogs coat and a fizzing tablet for the tub for their paws. This is such a cute idea. One of my westies has bad allergies so I'm not sure if I will use the moisturizing butter on her, but I'm looking forward to trying the fizzing tablet on their paws when they next have a bath - which will be very soon!


For those of you who haven't signed up yet - WHY NOT?! 
If you use the referral code SASCO020 when you sign up you will receive $5 off your first BarkBox - go on what's stopping you?

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Week 19

Finally the scales are heading back the other way - so I think the medication was to blame for my recent gains. I haven't tracked my food this week, but have been exercising lots. I weighed this morning and lost 4.4lbs this week - taking my total loss since the beginning of the year to 11.8lbs, still just under 7lbs away from my lowest weight this year, so hope to be back there very soon.

From today I am starting to track weight watchers points again :) I haven't done it in a long while and have been guesstimating, so need to re educate myself again.

Today is day 3 of my first week of my training plan for my walk in September. Monday was a rest day, although I did end up cleaning the house from top to bottom which took up a good part of the day, yesterday was a 3 mile walk, which I did walking around a local lake. Today is 30 mins cross training, so I plan to go on my exercise bike this afternoon for 30 mins. I am also walking up the huge set of steps near my house once a day, there are 152 steps in total, I've been walking up the middle part which is 75 steps. The top part is super steep, also the bottom part includes a steep slope before the steps, I did it once the other day and thought I was dying!! I'm sure it will get easier with practice.

I went to check out my local YMCA yesterday, it is nice, but I'm not sure I'm ready to go back just yet, so am going to let my membership expire at the end of the month, then maybe in a few months I will rejoin and start back at my water running classes. In the meantime I have lots of exercise equipment I can be using at home

My physio is going well and they are really pleased with my progress and I have a 30 minute strengthening program I do twice a day which is really helping.

I'm addicted to my fit bit at the moment, and love watching my progress and receiving my weekly stats. 
My daily steps target is 10,000 which I am going to keep for now, and my floors climbed is 10, but I'm going to change this to 15 as I am always walking up stairs. These are last week's stats.


Sunday, May 20, 2012

Filippo Berio olive oil

Im currently participating in a new BzzAgent campaign. For those of you who havent heard of BzzAgent, its a site that is free to sign up to and they send you products to try (normally free of charge), and in return you tell all your friends about the items, whether it be good of bad feedback.

 
For this campaign I received an 8.4oz bottle of Filippo Berio extra virgin olive oil, a cool fridge magnet that is a substitution chart, so shows you how much olive oil to use in recipes instead of butter/margarine, a set of $1 off coupons to share with you guys and some recipe cards and a Filippo Berio Olive Oil jar opener. The substitution card is available to print off on their website: http://www.filippoberio.com

I've always been a big fan of using olive oil, especially when i do roasted veg dishes, but other than that I haven't used it in any recipes, so this is my chance to start planning. The olive oil arrived the day I moved house, so that is one of the excuses I have for not blogging about it or using it sooner. One of the recipe cards is Broken Spaghetti with Shrimp so I plan on trying that some night this week.

How many of you use olive oil in recipe and how often?

Summer Challenge Week 1 results

Thank you to everyone for remembering to send me your weigh in results on time, makes it a lot easier for me to keep track of things.

We had some great losses this week - sadly I was not one of the people who had a loss though :(

So how did you get on with the water challenge? I drank lots of water this week, but must confess I didn't keep track of the exact amount, but think it would have been around 100oz. I know there are a few of you who have recently given up or are trying to give up soda - that is fantastic and good luck. It is something I have tried to do before and when I'm at home it is easy, but when I go out in the evenings as I don't often drink alcohol I find myself ordering diet coke - I guess diet is better than regular coke.

So down to the numbers, overall this week the whole group had a combined loss of 0.92% which is fantastic and a group loss of 35.65lbs. I know you are all waiting to hear who was our 'star loser' this week.......

That title goes to Terri E (@feritae) who lost 3.63% Congratulations on a fantastic loss and for being our first challenge winner. Although you are all winners for taking part in the challenge and the weight loss journey.

Something I need to work on is eating more fruit and veg, so the challenge for this week is to make sure you eat at least 5 portions of fruit or veg every day.

Good luck for week 2.

Don't forget our hashtag on twitter is #losew8in8 if you want to encourage your fellow challengers.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Catching up plus week 18

Life has been crazy here for the last few weeks. 
We moved house, then three days after moving in my sister and her husband came to visit, and then last weekend I was in Vegas - which was awesome (and very very hot!).

I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and chill out and start getting organized, and also planning for our next visitor (my mother in law) who arrives in 11 days and a trip to Tahoe :)

Last week's weigh in was a big surprise to me, as I wasn't expecting a huge gain, and wasn't sure why, I put it down to a few things, new medication, possibly eating more and scales on a new floor. The scales theory I kind of ruled out almost immediately as it showed the same weight on various places in the house. Last weekend I was in Vegas and I walked loads, I wore my fitbit the whole time and one day I walked 23,000 steps! I drank lots of water whilst there, and whilst I did eat unhealthy things I didn't eat loads. So I was surprised to have another gain this week of 3.8lbs, so a total of 10.8lbs in 2 weeks. I stopped my medication on Tuesday and weighed myself this morning and I am down 2.8lbs so far, so I'm thinking it must have been from the medication, plus I had really swollen ankles after returning from Vegas. So hopefully now the medication is out of my system the scales will be going the right way.


So onwards and upwards or should I say downwards as I don't plan on another gain. I have a plan of action too. I have been organizing my new gym/office room in our new house. 

 



















 As you can see I have a treadmill, bike, exercise ball, jump rope, dumbells, stretch bands and a bodyblade. So lots of things to keep me busy, plus all the steps in my house! Plus near to my house there is a HUGE staircase, twice this week I have tackled part of it, each time I climbed 75 steps, the first time felt OK, but I was out of breath at the top, the second time seemed a lot harder. One day I hope to walk the full set, which I guess is probably around 160, haven't counted them yet.

It is also only 16 weeks until my 3 day, 60 mile walk, so think it is time to do some training, each week they send me an email with a training plan, so I have written it out on the board in my gym room and plan to mark off each day I complete it - I will be reporting back next week :) This should also give me weight loss a boost. I also need to work on my fundraising as I have to raise $2300 in order to be allowed to take part, I've raised $1,295 so far, so am over half way there :) Thanks to everyone who has donated already.


I am still pain free since my epidural injection (yay!), and restarted physiotherapy on Friday, I have been referred for 8 sessions and this week I am focusing on stretching as my muscles are very tight. They also put me on a traction machine, which was a very strange experience.

We are coming to the end of the first week of my summer challenge, so I will be posting about that tomorrow. The challenge for this week was to drink 100oz of water each day. I have been drinking loads but must confess I haven't been keeping track of the actual amount, but am hoping it has been 100oz, I must measure my cup sometime, it helps that we have a fridge with a water dispenser on the front, so every time I am in the kitchen I have a glass of water.

I am in the process of transferring my gym membership, I just need to go into the new location to activate it, which I plan on doing next week. Then I hope to get back to my water running classes as well. Maybe I should stop using the words hope and hopefully and be more positive!!

I mentioned a few weeks back about a website called Postcrossing, well I received my first postcard this week which came from Germany.

I have mailed a total of 11 now, so should be receiving more in the mail very soon. I have also this week discovered foodie penpals, which sounds like an awesome idea, where you send food packages to people each month, so am thinking of signing up for that also.

Well done if you made it to the end of my blog post. Have a great week xxx

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Summer Challenge

Welcome to the 8 week summer challenge.

I'm pleased to say we have 18 participants, I was hoping to get a few more people on board, but I guess the less people in the challenge the more chance you have of winning.

Our participants for the challenge are:

Holli B (@hollicbuck)
Lisa S (@LisascottLisa)
Marisol N (@missmarisol)
Laura L (@BikiniCountdown)
Sarah G (@sarah1807)
Erica H (@MommaHunt16)
Dacia L (@dacialee33)
AnnMarie H 
Veronica R (@NewVeronica2011)
Kipp (@scribble_nibble)
Crystal P (@oneandonlycp)
Carrye DM (@MizLit)
Clare A (@pollypissypants)
Terri E (@feritae)
Alexis A (@divaonadiet)
Becky M (@OMGBeckster)
Robyn D (@frosted_miika)
Sarah S (@sarahlou1976)

I first of all want to say well done for signing up for the challenge and of course Good Luck to everyone.  Please remember to send me your new weight by midnight each Saturday, I will then calculate your % loss (or gain) and reply to your email. I will then post the name of the person with the biggest % loss (no actual weights) in my blog post next week.

Challenge 1.
Feel free to give me ideas for things you would like to see as challenges. The weekly challenges are optional, but hopefully a few of you will take part.

So week 1, let's focus on our water intake and drink at least 100oz each day this week. I know I need to work on this especially as the weather is so nice at the moment.

Remember if you do want to tweet about the challenge we will use the hash tag #losew8in8

Have a great week everyone

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Week 17

This blog now comes to you from the other side of the Bay :) The house move went well and we are just about unpacked and slowly getting things organized.
I've been really busy and been doing lots of steps according to my fitbit and also lots of stairs, as we have loads of stairs in our house/garden. Also near our house there is a huge set of steps, I walked the long way around this morning and down the main part of the steps and counted 101, I estimate there are another 30/40 in the second part of the steps. Maybe one day I'll be fit enough to attempt to walk up them. I have seen lots of people walk and even run up them, and it seems a popular exercise for the locals.

Down to the numbers, I was confused by the number on the scales this morning, it says I have had a gain of 7lbs. I personally think this can't be correct as I've been doing lots and not eating that much. I didn't even gain that much on my two week vacation to England where I ate loads of unhealthy stuff.
My theory on the number is it could be that I'm now weighing on a different type of floor than before, although I did put it in three locations in the bedroom and it said the same each time. I am on some new medication that causes water retention and bloating and it could also be that. Or I guess it could just be I've gained after the recent big losses. Either way I'm not overly concerned about the number at the moment.

My sister is visiting at the moment from England and we are off to Vegas this weekend, so I will be eating and drinking more than normal, but will also be on my feet lots too. So let's see what the scales say next week.

In our new house I have a gym room, which I'm super excited about so hope to start using that soon. I went to see my back Dr on Monday and he was pleased with my progress so far, and I'm still pain free :) I have been referred for some more physio, and have my first appointment next Friday so will find out the best exercises to be doing.

So, the summer challenge. So far two people have sent me their starting weight this week. I have had another 15 people show and interest in joining too. If you do want to sign up you need to send me your starting weight by midnight (PST) Saturday to be able to enter for the prize.

Good luck to everyone who signs up, I'm looking forward to seeing some great losses.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Week 16

Going to make this a quick post, as I really need to get on with the packing!! For those of you who don't know we are moving house in two days, well 38 hours to be precise!

This week was a strange week, my appetite reappeared, Which resulted in lots of overeating of not very healthy food this week, as a result on Sunday morning the scales showed a gain of 6.4lbs!! This gave me the motivation to rethink things, and I started making healthier choices again and also started packing which involved more exercise, and less chance to snack!!

The result this morning was that I stayed the same, which I was really pleased with. I'm going to try my best to stay focused throughout the move, plus my little sister arrives on Monday for 12 days, and we are going to Vegas for 3 days!! At least Vegas will involve lots of walking - must remember to charge my fitbit before I go. 

That reminds me, I got my 50 miles badge today with fitbit, which means since I started using it I've walked 50 miles. Which sounds great, but then I thought about the 3 day, 60 mile walk I'm doing in September and that scared me a bit!!


 The boxes and packing tape are calling. Have a good week everyone x

Nearly forgot, don't forget my summer challenge starts next week